Can we make the FAQ (tag) more FAQ-y?

Question

Right now we have just 8 faq posts.

That's not terrible, but they are in various states, various formats, and one of them is even closed. I think it would be great to clean up these posts, decide on a format and figure out a process for bringing in new FAQ questions (and apply the tag now to the best ones we have here on Meta).

Motivations

1. Provide a great place for new users to start learning about the best ways to use this site.
2. Provide links for experienced users to use in comments on questions or answers that need attention.
3. Take a big step in fixing this site!

I have three main proposals and a couple questions.

1. Make the FAQ tagged questions more FAQ-y

In my understanding, the faq tag should be used for the most frequently asked and answered questions on Meta. (That's what the tag wiki says, at least.)

1. I propose we review which questions are tagged faq, and fix any that are out of place (such as those about the site-faq which I propose as the replacement tag).

2. I believe that these questions should be in Question and Answer form, so that users can see quickly that it's a question they actually have.

Right now, these are the questions we have in the tag:

• Why is “what language should I learn” considered off-topic? - Good question. Should be community wiki, and I'm not sure the answers are quite there yet.

• Proposed FAQ change regarding career advice questions - Since it's about the actual FAQ page I'm not sure if the tag was correctly applied, but it's a good question (deserves it anyway). It just needs to be edited to question-answer form.

• I've updated our FAQ. - Honestly I'm not sure I understand the inclusion of this one (why is it closed as too localize?)

• How does Programmers site work? - Perfect. Shining example of what a faq question can be. Oh - except for maybe fixing the grammar in the title :)

• The Six Subjective Question Guidelines — Enforcement Notice - Great topic, but needs Q&A format.

• When is it acceptable for a moderator to make a unilateral decision to close a question? - Good

• What's the difference between Programmers and Stack Overflow? - Great question. Need to turn Mark's whole answer into an updated answer, and I wish we could accept it somehow.

• What should our FAQ contain? - Kind of meta. I think it's more site-faq than faq

2. A FAQ index

The FAQ for Stack Exchange Sites at Meta.SO is great. Would be cool to see one like that here.

3. Figure out a process for bringing in new FAQ posts

Specifically, where do we propose a good posts, discuss its merits, or decide on the "right" answer?

My first nomination is "Real Questions have Answers". This is the post announcing the addition of the section to the FAQ page, but I think it would be great to have a "Are polls ok?" question with a bit longer answer (community wiki) comprising the best writing on this topic.

Ideally this answer would also talk about how we should avoid "you/your" in questions, so we can use it in comments on questions like this one — the question that got me thinking about all of this in the first place.

For this process, maybe we could use the meta-faq tag I created for this question (no others fit).

Questions

1. Is the Q&A format (a la Meta.SO) correct for this site? I believe it is, but I'm open to opposing viewpoints.

2. If we do go with Q&A format for FAQ questions, how do we arrive at the right answer but still allow voting, discussion (comments), and editing?

   The Skeptics site is working on solution for this that involves turning the original into a discussion/staging area and posting a new question with the best/correct answer. However, I'm not a big fan of this. I posted an answer that became the "official" one but all that served to do was branch the conversation.

3. How do we push the right answer to the top on FAQ questions? Votes? Accept it?

Answer 1

Edit: Over the past couple of weeks, we've been accumulating several FAQ-worthy questions that provide a good amount of detail beyond what the one-page FAQ, so I've taken the extra couple of steps to consolidate and adjust the questions to be more FAQ-like. We now have a FAQ Index which links to several questions on meta and elsewhere.

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I don't think there's a tremendous amount of value in spending a whole lot of time on this.

On Meta Stack Overflow, they get a ton of questions about all the sites about every possible mechanic. They get dozens upon dozens of questions about the same things, and as such, require canonical posts to point to for the purposes of duplicates.

Additionally, the amount of questions they get about various aspects of the site require extensive detail that can't be fit into a single page FAQ. For example, there's a FAQ post that goes into the excruciating minutiae of how comment replies work.

In short, Meta Stack Overflow has what Jeff Atwood terms "big city problems". The faq tag is the only reasonable way to handle the onslaught of support questions they get about the engine and global policies.

We don't really have that problem. We get ~2-3 questions every couple of days, and for the most part, cover new issues that do need a discussion or a real answer (i.e. they can't be closed as a duplicate). Even the ones that cover the same ground as earlier questions, we (usually) can answer the question in a way that makes it specific to the person asking it.

So we've been using faq to tag questions to the few questions frequently arise organically:

• how is Programmers.SE different from Stack Overflow,
• changes to the main FAQ sparked by frequent on-topic discussions,
• the consequences of the Great Redisciplining,
• and so on.

The main intent of these questions is to explain the background behind the policies Programmers.SE has, not to explain in detail the different mechanics behind those policies (like Meta Stack Overflow).

And for the stuff everyone needs to know—the stuff we want to refer to when closing questions or discussing policy—we use our single-page FAQ. If anything should get some love, it's that.

But, if you see something that really explains the problems with an issue that frequently comes up, by all means flag it. Beyond that, the normal Stack Exchange guidelines apply:

• If you have a better answer to a question, answer it.
• If you like an answer, up-vote it.
• If you don't like an answer, down-vote it and leave a comment explaining why.

Answer 2

We appreciate the time you took in writing that up.

The best way to get things more appropriately tagged is liberal use of the moderator flag. Just a quick "I think this has FAQ potential" would be fine.

I will try to go through currently FAQ tagged questions with fellow moderators tomorrow.